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September 14, 2005
Apple cake
Some twenty years ago, a student from Long Island was at my house for dinner and remarked, "You're the first person I've ever known who goes grocery shopping by the roadside." And he was right. I was serving a dish I'd learned from a Japanese friend who had survived WWII privations, when roadside grocery shopping was a necessity. It was ordinary colt's-foot (whose Japanese name I no longer remember), cooked to a delicacy and served over the yummy sticky Japanese rice.
Yesterday I did my grocery shopping at Wegman's—and then by the roadside. The wild apples are coming in, and I had been keeping an eye on a promising-looking tree at an abandoned farmstead. So yesterday after Wegman's, it was roadside grocery shopping. The ones I harvested may not be fully ripe, but they're close enough, I think. The basketball team has been pestering Beloved Partner for a dinner date, so they're coming over on Saturday. BP will take care of the whole dinner, except for apple cake, an annual ritual that I'm really looking forward to enacting. Apple cake can be made with tart storebought apples, but it's best with the wild ones.
The recipe is actually just one variant on a homemade cake mix. I'll give the mix recipe here and then the apple cake variant. If anyone's interested, I'll post the other variants on this cake.
SNACK CAKE MIX
Makes about 13 c.
Before using, stir mix; then spoon loosely into measuring c & level off.
6 c flour
3 tablespoons baking powder
1-1/2 c shortening
4 c sugar
2 teaspoons salt
In lg bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder & salt. W/ pastry blender, cut in shortening till mixture resembles cornmeal. Store in airtight container in cool, dry place.
APPLE CAKE
Makes 8 svgs. Per svg w/o ice cream: 202 cal, 3 g pro, 35 g car, 7 g fat, 33 mg chol, 161 mg sod
1 med-size tart apple, peeled if desired, quartered, cored & cut in very thin wedges. If you're using wild apples, it will take 2-3 of them.
2 T sugar
2 t lemon juice
1/4 t ea cinnamon & nutmeg
2 c Snack-Cake Mix
2 egg whites, slightly beaten
1/3 c milk
In sm bowl toss apple w/ sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon & nutmeg; set aside. In 8" layer-cake or sq pan stir cake mix, egg & milk w/ rubber spatula till well blended. Scrape down sides of pan. Press apple slices, rounded sides up, into batter in rows. Drizzle any melted sugar mixture remaining in bowl over apple slices. Bake at 375° 30 min or till pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Posted by senioritis at September 14, 2005 08:09 AM
Comments
I just love those two words together: apple cake. Yum!
Posted by: aerobil at September 14, 2005 11:08 AM
Well, I have a feeling it's not on the Atkins or South Beach diet. But then, neither am I!
Posted by: senioritis at September 14, 2005 11:16 AM
Wow! That sounds good! I am thinking of apple cake and cinnamon ice cream, YUM.
Posted by: dr. b. at September 14, 2005 11:52 AM